Proform Treadmills Review

My wife purchased the Proform 680 trainer treadmill about a week before Christmas.  The price was $599 with free shipping to our door. At least it was supposed to be free shipping to our door. Icon Health and Fitness, who distributes the Proform Treadmills, uses Old Dominion Freight Line for shipping. The treadmill was scheduled to be delivered on or about December 30. We got a call from the Old Dominion driver on January 7. He said he had our delivery but refused to bring it to our house. He asked my wife to drive to the location he was parked, about 7 miles away. When she arrived he asked her to help him carry the 195 pound box to her car. When the treadmill wouldn't fit into the vehicle the driver said "you'll just have to make other arrangements. I have to go."

After we got the treadmill home we assembled the treadmill following the directions meticulously. There was one problem in the assembly. Where the left handle fits into the left upright there is three predrilled holes for three bolts to attach the handle to the upright. While two of the holes were matched perfectly the third was not. It was off enough that the bolt could not be screwed in.

After assembly was complete, with the exception of the one bolt mentioned above. My wife tried the treadmill. The right side of the display supposed to scroll between distance, speed, and pulse. The display stays on pulse exclusively. You could run or walk forever and never know how far your distance. Not only that but the pulse readout would fluctuate wildly from 40 bpm to 140 bpm even though her hands were not on the pulse sensors.

My wife sent Proform an email on the evening of January 7 to explain the problems. Proform has not responded. On January 8 my wife was on hold for about an hour waiting for technical service from Proform. She eventually left a message with the promise we would receive a call back within 24 hours. Proform did not return the call. On January 9 I phoned Proform again. After being on hold for about 20 minutes I got a live person. However, she was much more interested in trying to sell me an extended warranty than in helping me with my immediate problems. Eventually she did tell me that I had to take the motor cover off and adjust a reed switch. The three screws that hold the motor cover on are counter sunk about 5 inches and are almost impossible to get out without a magnetized long phillips screwdriver. When asked what to do about the bolt holes that didn't match up on the upright and handle she didn't answer. She did say that if I redrilled the hole I would void the warranty.

So far I do not recommend purchasing this product or any other product from this company. It would have been worth an extra couple hundred bucks to get a little better made product from a company with better customer service.